Tourists like to complain that Parisians are rude and unfriendly, but, of course, this is nonsense

Paris boasts an annual courtesy
crusade during which people are urged to be polite to each other for an
entire week, and only last November [1963] a club for the promotion of
niceness, Le Club de la Gentillesse, was founded. The group’s aim is
‘‘to gather those who appreciate the need of teaching the benefits of
niceness, which is the key to a balanced life and world harmony.’’
Membership is already up to nearly 100, and one man recently offered to
go to Madagascar as France’s Ambassador of Niceness.